And a sensational exotic European dancer, Naiada, is another of the big acts.
That’s the way many New Haveners celebrated Labor Day, which fell on this day, Sept. 3, back in 1904.
The place to be was not in your backyard — in close proximity, no doubt, to the privy! — but at the fabulous, newly opened amusement park called “White City” out at Savin Rock. Join the New Haven Museum‘s photo-archivist Jason Bischoff-Wurstle as we journey back in time to the popular entertainments of the early 20th century on the latest episode of “This Day In New Haven History.” You can listen to the episode by clicking on the audio above or finding it in iTunes or on any podcast app under “WNHH Community Radio.” A beach and working man’s resort dating from the 1870s Savin Rock added the latest roller-coaster kinds of amusement park rides to make the place in effect a kind of Coney Island or Six Flags in the early years of the new century
You paid your admission for the 1:30, 3:30, or 8:15 show, and the “remarkable program” also included the Vanos.
Never heard of them? We hadn’t either, but they are described in the archival newspaper we read aloud on the program as “handcuff and trunk manipulators.”
These “artists” would be wrapped up in all kinds of chains and locks, often draped and fastened by the local constabulary, and the clock set to see how long before they can escape. Why was escaping from chains and trunks and such magic so big a deal then?
Did working people, most not represented yet by the nascent unions, feel deeply enchained?
One of the pleasures of our time-travel via “This Day In New Haven History” is that the journey opens up the little peep hole we have from our history classes into a wider window or vista of what was really going on and actually experienced.
The Vanos, for example, were competing with a guy named Harry Houdini to be great escape artists. Doubtless there were many others. And here I had thought that Houdini was the only guy crazy enough to do this kind of thing!
